Slaves of the Modern Era.....

"I don't think you are being utilized 100% , we are giving money to your organization and we need to utilize you more and more, Its all money business you know" ........... silence prevailed for a few seconds, I really didn't know what should I respond , then again he spoke up " Look if you don't take up things that I give you, I may have to terminate your contract, I hope you know this is how it works"......... I was like whats wrong with him all of a sudden......... as I was gathering myself from this verbal assault , suddenly he spoke up again " So I take your commitment as a YES" , I replied "What commitment? I mean what are you saying, how can I commit unless I know what I need to work on? I guess let us talk about this on Monday, I am already on my way back home" . It was a Friday evening and I was returning home from my office, this was my manager at 'Client Side' who was yelling on me like anything on the phone. He then cut the phone with his final words "OK so I take it as a YES, great" !!!

I was like what sort of commitment was he talking about and he even took it as Yes and on top of it he is boasting about the Money Business, as if he has owned me and can order me anything, not even listen to what I have to say, rather respond.

I mentioned this to my manager (my inhouse manager) and he responded "This is the way things work at Client Side, you have to get used to it" . That is the mentality of most of the Indian Managers who deal with the clients. When I say MOST I refer to most of the managers that I have worked with. They will always try to adjust things around the client's ease. For Example timezone issues, the US managers cannot get up early, forget managers no one from their team can get up early and get on call/issues (despite the fact that most of them do have the facility to work from home), so we have to stay late, at times till midnight or even the whole night, why?, only because they are clients and we are getting $$ from them. How can one forget that if they are satisfying our organization's 'Monetary' need or rather greed, then even we are giving them what they want. Our existence means their existence.

I even gave a thought if this could be vice-a-versa i.e. their existence means our existence, this is actually a false perception which the whole world has accepted and is not budging to look it the other way. If I come out of the closet and say that 'I always wont attend the meetings or I wont be available at the odd hours or I wont sacrifice my family/friends at the cost of some $$' then the things will definitely work, it should be mutual, if we are willing to stretch at times then even the people at client side should show some 'HUMAN' understanding!!!! Just dont say sentences like 'We Understand........ but...' or 'That is fine.........but.....' This but is really a pain in the Butt. If you really understand, then you will work towards its resolution, but these are mere words.

All this while I was mentioning them as CLIENTS, but I guess that is the wrong word, at this point of time I am unable to figure out the appropriate word that could be used, but the basic problem lies in the word itself 'Client'. We think them as client and that is where we give them all the privilege to behave the way they do.

I feel we are the Slaves of the Modern Era, most of us might not realize this, but yes we are behaving as slaves when we agree to unrealistic demands/targets, when we don't stand up against anything which is not feasible or practical, and eventually we suffer. Its we who have to get up and become rebel at times, not always though, but at times we have to, otherwise it will be mental torture and sacrifices all the time.

I don't say that this happens always, but it happens most of the times, many might have faced a similar scenario in their professional lives. So if we don't stop this, this will go on forever and we will always keep on catering to the so called CLIENT.